"I'm not weak. But I'm not like you."
I love a great chick fight. Clarke and Anya, maybe not at the level of Buffy and Faith. But they were awesome.
Clarke just keeps blowing me away by thinking on her feet and doing very smart things, like grabbing that dart to use later. Loved that Anya was so bad ass that she actually bit the tracker out of her arm (ouch) and how she kept telling Clarke how bad she smelled. But Clarke got the better of an opponent who was clearly a better fighter, and managed to drag Anya all the way to the drop ship to read the washed out, unreadable message from her mother. Fortunately, Raven was there in a very timely clinch with the balloon beacon.
Okay, so nasty Major what's-her-face was right that the balloon would attract unwanted grounders, and yes, Clarke and Anya were both so utterly filthy and covered with blood and grime that it was no wonder Clarke was unrecognizable. But what about a "Halt! Who freaking goes there"? I cannot express my displeasure at Anya's pointless death too strongly. Especially since after all of Clarke's hard work connecting with her, Anya had just agreed to talk to her commander about an alliance. I'd worry that the trigger happy Campers would kill Clarke, too, except that Clarke is one of the series stars.
In the meantime, Bellamy and Finn, two other series stars, plus the incredibly changing Murphy and two teenage redshirts were off searching for Clarke (she and Anya probably passed them at a distance going in the other direction) when they stumbled upon another Ark crash site strewn with dead bodies. Could I add that it was weird that the bodies were all in one piece? Not to be intentionally gruesome or anything, but plane crashes are usually wall to wall V-8.
The thing is, the incredibly changing Finn was sort of right about not stopping. They risked everything to save Mel, and lost Sterling in the process. (Sterling was the young guy redshirt. Monroe, the androgynous braid redshirt, lucked out and just got an arrow in her thigh.) But I get why Bellamy couldn't leave Mel. Hey, he knew her. If she'd been a grounder, he would have walked away whistling. Or maybe not. Helping each other, it's what people do. And after Sterling fell, it was like they had already invested a character in the rescue so they had to stay and finish it. I particularly loved Bellamy telling Mel that he promised he would get her up the cliff, while Sterling's dead body on the ground below served as an obvious example that he had no right or reason to make such a promise.
Incredibly changing Murphy then saved Bellamy's life with (symbolism alert) the same sort of red seat belts that he strangled him with last season. They're buds now, and Bellamy even gave Murphy a gun and told him to look after Finn. I'm sure that will go well. Then Bellamy got a karmic reward when Octavia showed up out of the blue. I actually thought the brother/sister reunion was sweet.
Let's move on to Thelonious Jaha, who has my favorite character name in the series as well as the luck of the Irish. The desertscapes looked like they were taken directly out of Mad Max. I especially liked the tattered skeleton of the umbrella, and the car buried in the sand.
I'm not sure what to say about the outcast family with Garza from Continuum as the mom, and Zoran the monster child that should have been left to die but wasn't, like a hero in Greek mythology. This sort of story has been done before. But it was kind of Jaha to give Zoran his black knight horsey chess piece, his only keepsake of Wells, but such a drag that the couple traded Jaha for (symbolism alert) a black horsey so that they could travel to the City of Light. Or Lights. Where is that? The Big Apple?
Who is paying bounty for Sky People? And why did they bonk Jaha? I'm sure he's still alive, though. He has nine freaking lives.
Finally, the only big bit of plot I haven't covered yet is Raven and her frustration with her nerve-damaged leg. It didn't stop her from creating the balloon beacon with the help of her buddy Kyle Wick, who was kind enough to create a brace for her, and smart enough to talk her into wearing it. I liked that Raven wasn't magically better because it wouldn't have felt realistic. Although I just hated seeing her struggle to climb that tower, and then have to give up.
Wick is cool. I liked him. According to IMdb, he was in an earlier episode, "The Calm." I honestly don't remember what he did in that episode, but in his review, Mark said, "More Wick, please" so it must have been cool.
Bits and pieces:
— Can I mention how much I love the season two credits? Although they're sort of thematically similar to Game of Thrones, aren't they?
— The Ark piece crash site was just gorgeous. I love the scenery in Vancouver. Which doesn't look that much like Virginia.
— Why wasn't anyone holding on to the rope while Sterling was descending? Seriously?
— They keep hitting up Continuum for actors. Murphy, played by Richard Harmon, has done a marvelous job with the complicated character of Julian Randol; Sienna was played by Luvia Petersen (Garza). Mel was played by Tanaya Beatty (Rebecca). Alessandro Juliani was in a Continuum episode, too.
— Anya: "My fight is over." Nooooooo!
Another busy and interesting episode. Two and a half out of four ground up bugs. It's what's for dinner,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Kinda anti-climactic what they did to Anya but completely realistic. Clarke will be royally pissed. At least half of the search party will come back to the Ark to see her alive and well (Bellamy and Octavia), but I'm glad Finn will attack grounders just by himself with Murphy. Maybe they won't come back, one can hope at least.
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